Digital Divide – Bridging

the Gap
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Author: Peter Roed
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Have you ever!

Turned around went home because you

forgot your phone!
Gone a day without checking your e-
mail!
‘Googled’!
Visited ‘MySpace’ or ‘Facebook’!
Know what ‘Wiki’ or ‘Blog’ mean?
Forgot that a mouse is a small furry Click here
mammal!
Did you know!

There are people that do not even

know what a cell-phone is!
Or E-mail, Google, MySpace, or
Facebook let alone Wiki or Blogged!
Have seen thousands of mice but none
hooked to a computer!
They cannot cross the gap known as
the digital divide!
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Digital Divide It is scary to think
that only 6% of the
worlds population
has access to the
internet
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More people
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/digitaldivide2.jpg have cell
phones than
What is the Digital Divide?

“The Digital Divide is most

commonly defined as the gap
between those individuals and
communities that have, and do
not have, access to the
information technologies that are
transforming our lives.” -
where-we-are-today
http://www.edutopia.org/digital-divide-

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What is the Digital Divide?

What's going on? – Click here to start video!

Time - 5:16

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Different levels of the Digital
Divide
Diversity
School Verses Home
Rich Verses Poor
Education Level
Disabilities
Types of Access
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Diversity and the Divide

How much would you use the

internet if it was not in English?
“Hispanics (31.8 percent) and
African Americans (39.8 percent)
lag behind whites (59.9 percent)
in Internet access at home,
suggesting serious ethnic and
racial divides.” -
http://www.edutopia.org/digital-divide-where-we-are-today

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School Verses Home

School Access
“99 percent of public schools now have
access to the Internet. And, according to a
2004 survey of district leaders conducted by
the Consortium for School Networking
(CoSN), broadband connectivity has made its
way into schools quite rapidly, with 95 percent
of all classrooms nationwide having high-
speed Internet access and 62 percent of
respondents indicating that every classroom
in their district had broadband access.” –Inside the

Divide

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School Verses Home

School Access
“According to the CoSN survey, the four most
important benefits of technology cited by
school leaders (timely data for decision-
making, staff efficiency, administrator
productivity, and improved communications)
were administrative.” –
Inside the Divide

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School Verses Home

School verses Home

“’Computer and Internet Use’
(DeBell & Chapman, 2003)
reported that in 2001, more
children and adolescents used
computers at school (81%) than at
home (65%).” -
Study
Closing the Digital Divide: Update From the Early Childhood Longitudinal

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School Verses Home

Home Access
“Only around 30 percent of youth
in the lowest household income
category use computers at home
compared to over 90 percent of
youth in the highest income
category.” -
http://www.edutopia.org/digital-divide-where-we-are-today

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School Verse Home

Home Access
“They note that almost half of
Americans do not have Internet
access at home and only 25
percent of America's poorest
households are online compared
with approximately 80 percent of
homes earning over $75,000.” -
http://www.edutopia.org/digital-divide-where-we-are-today

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Closing the Digital Divide: Update Look at the
diversity
From the Early Childhood mix in the
Longitudinal Study low poverty
TABLE 1. Demographic Characteristics of Children (N = 8,283)
schools
High-poverty schools Low-poverty schools
Characteristic n % n %
Child's gender
Male 1,581 51.8 2,667 51.0
Female 1,472 48.2 2,563 49.0
Child's race
White 996 32.6 3,433 65.7
African American 814 26.7 414 7.9
Hispanic 810 26.5 728 13.9
Asian/Pacific Islander 271 8.9 432 8.3
Other 160 5.2 216 4.1
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Closing the Digital Divide: Update I wonder if
education
From the Early Childhood will have an
Longitudinal Study effect on the
TABLE 1. Demographic Characteristics of Children (N = 8,283)
High-poverty schools Low-poverty schools
internet
Characteristic n % n %
Family socioeconomic status (SES)
Low SES (bottom 20% ) 881 35.1 565 12.0
Middle SES (middle 60% ) 1,442 57.4 2,945 62.6
High SES (top 20% ) 188 7.5 1,197 25.4
Mother's education
Less than high school 567 23.2 400 8.7
High school diploma or
equivalent 810 33.1 1,178 25.6
Partial college/trade school 791 32.3 1,718 37.4
Bachelor's degree 186 7.6 827 18.0
Graduate degree 94 3.8 475 10.3
Family poverty level
Below poverty threshold 1,036 41.3 694 14.7
Above poverty threshold 1,475 58.7 4,013 85.3
Note. SES = Socioeconomic status.
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Closing the Digital Divide: Update
From the Early Childhood
Longitudinal Study
TABLE 2. Percentage of Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 3 Children's Technology Access

Kindergarten Grade 1 Grade 3

High Low High Low High Low

poverty poverty poverty poverty poverty poverty

* Computer

resources % % % % % %

* Computer

laboratory

in school 79.1 81.8 78.9 81.4 84.6 85.2

* Computers

with LAN 78.8 81.4 83.4 89.3 87.3 92.2

* Computers

used in class 93.8 90.0 87.6 91.6 96.1 96.5

* Computer

area in class 85.3 87.6 90.2 92.0 92.4 94.5

* Access to and

use of home

computer 34.7 59.8 46.4 70.9 63.3 83.7

* Access to and

use of Internet Click here

at home 10.7 13.1 67.3 69.4

Note. LAN = local area network.

Look at the difference
to access of a home
computer
Education

“The Pew survey also found

differences based on education
levels; only 29 percent of those
who had less than a high school
degree reported having Internet
access, compared with 61 percent
of high school graduates and 89
percent of college graduates.” –
the Divide
Inside

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 Educations Relation to the Is internet
Internet Access! access
important to
Country Internet Access Years in school Rank
education?
Top 5 for Internet Access
Sweden 0.85 11.4 5
Denmark 0.83 9.7 11
Iceland 0.82 8.8 22
Norway 0.79 11.8 2
Netherlands 0.79 9.4 14
Number 11 for Internet Access

United States 0.78 12 1

Bottom 5 for Internet Access
Central African
Republic 0.1 2.5 90

Sierra Leone 0.1 2.4 91

Guinea-Bissau 0.1 0.8 100

Mali 0.09 0.9 99
Niger 0.04 1 98
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Education Does the relation
between internet
access and
education look
linear?

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Divide relations to Disability!

“The 2003 census showed significant

gains for individuals with disabilities;
63.7 percent of users who were blind
or had severe vision impairment and
72.1 percent of deaf and hearing-
impaired users had Internet access, as
compared to the 54.6 percent overall
average in that same year.”
“A lack of access for an alarming
number of disabled Americans who
had a vital need for adaptive
technologies.” -INSIDE THE DIVIDE Click here
How do we access the
Internet?
Dial-up - averaging up to 56k Bytes per
second, very slow.
High-Speed Cable - Fast starting at 1
Mega-Bytes per second ranging all the
way up to ? Mega-bytes per second.
Roughly 75-? times faster then dial-up.
Capable of multiple computers.
“Internet, a lower level of connectivity
in many rural areas” – Inside the Divide

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The Divides effect on
Classroom Activities!
Could you imagine in a classroom that
only 40% of your students have the
current textbook!
Some do not have any, some are using
books with old information!
That is the challenge of the divide,
some students cannot access and
for others it is just to slow!

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The Divides effect on
Classroom Activities!
How many times do we assume a
student does not do a project because
they are lazy?
Or is it because they have slow
connectivity to the internet or worse
none at all!
So do we praise or grade base just on
the quality of work without knowing the
tools students have to work with! Click here
What can we do?

Know your students (survey)

Have plans developed for structure
technology educational process
Help students and parents to locate
access to internet
Write grants
Gates Foundation
Freedom to Learn

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Use of Computers in the
Classroom!
“By carefully analyzing how
students use computers for
instructional purposes during the
school day, individual teachers
can exert significant influence on
the digital divide.”
- Swain & Pearson

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Use of Computers in the
Classroom!
“Implementing technology
standards can decrease the digital
divide and establish a cornerstone
for building curricula that places
all students on a level playing
field.” - Swain & Pearson

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Examples of ways to share
Technology!
Bridging the Digital Divide – Click
here to start video - 9:03

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Use of Computers in the
Classroom!
TABLE 3. Percentage of Grade 3 Children Who
Used Computers Weekly in Their Classrooms
High poverty Low poverty
Instructional
purpose % %
Reading 61.7 47.7
Mathematics 43.7 36.4
Social studies 9.3 8.0
Science 12.8 10.4
Internet 50.1 49.0
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Teacher Training is a part of
the solution.
“Because only 15%-20% of all
teachers believed that they were
well prepared to use computers,
technology training clearly should
become a high priority.”
the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study
- Closing the Digital Divide: Update From

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Digital Globalization!
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Internet Usage by Region

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World Internet Users
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Internet Penetration by Region
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Asia might have

the most people
using the internet
but it is still only
12% of their
population.
Closing

“If we teach today’s

student as we taught
yesterday’s, we rob
them of tomorrow.” - Dewey

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Shift Happens

Did you know? Shift Happens. 2008

– Click here to start the video –
3:20

Now how important is the internet.

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References

Carvin, A. The gap. SLJ 52 no3 Mr 2006. The

H.W. Wilson Company.
Judge, S., Puckett, K., Bell, S. M. Closing the
digital divide: Update from the early childhood
longitudinal study. The Journal of Educational
Research (Washington, D.C.) 100 no1 52-60
S/O 2006
Dickard, N., Schneider, D. The digital divide:
Where we are today. The George Lucas
Educational Foundation. July 1st, 2001.
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References

Salpeter, J. Inside the divide.

Technology & Learning 26 no8 22-
4, 26, 28 Mr 2006.
U.S. department of commerce.
Entering the broadband age.
Economics and Statistics
Administration. September 2004.
www.youtube.com

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 How will
you use
this
informatio
n?
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over